A struggling independent charter school affiliated with a prominent Milwaukee church has won a two-year reprieve from Milwaukee Public Schools, despite a recommendation by some board members that it rescind its charter to operate.

The Milwaukee school board voted 5-1 Thursday to approve a two-year contract extension for Kathryn T. Daniels Preparatory Academy, a K-8 charter school affiliated with Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ.

The board's Committee on Student Achievement and School Innovation voted last week to rescind the contract, citing an in-house review that raised concerns about students' academic performance, curriculum, teacher turnover, the health and safety of students, and other issues.

But board members rejected that recommendation Thursday, with some characterizing the effort to sever ties with the Daniels school as an assault on Milwaukee's African-American community and a north side institution.

"It's not just a school. ... They provide shelter, dental care, medical care. ... We don't close a school like that," said former board President Michael Bonds, who, along with board member Wendell Harris, noted that K.T. Daniels outperformed 63% of traditional MPS schools on its state report card.

Harris, whose own nieces and nephews have attended a Daniels school, said he would not support any effort to "destroy institutions in the black community."

"We are not going to sit back and let anybody or anything take away from our children," he said.

Board member Larry Miller, who cast the lone vote against the renewal, argued the Daniels school met only three of its 13 academic targets under its contract with MPS and failed its health and safety target three years in a row.

"That's a huge flag for me," said Miller, who noted that the contract does not consider the school's ranking on the state report cards. "There needs to be accountability for what's going on," he said.

Three board members were absent and did not vote on the contract: President Mark Sain, Carol Voss and Tony Baez, who made the motion in committee to end the district's relationship with the school.

The Kathryn T. Daniels contract was one of three independent charter school renewals taken up by the board Thursday. The others passed without discussion: a five-year extension for the Hmong American Peace Academy and two years for Milwaukee Environmental Sciences Academy, despite concerns raised in last week's committee meeting about MESA's academic performance.

MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver and the charter committee review team that authored the report critical of Daniels Academy supported the contract extension. Driver said Thursday that the district has an obligation to work with its "charter partners," and that Holy Redeemer could take the school to another charter authorizer or one of the state's private voucher programs if MPS severed its contract, moves that would hurt the district's bottom line.

"We also have 42 schools that fail to meet (state) expectations that are currently open," Driver said. "I want to be very careful about how we condemn our charter partners."

"My question is: Why do we bother having a contract? The premise of charters is that they're going to be innovative and that they can educate kids for cheaper than we can."

Board members raised concerns about Kathryn T. Daniels Academy in the past, prompting them to give it just a two-year renewal in 2015.

The Daniels Academy is one of two schools affiliated with Holy Redeemer. The Daniels family, whose members include fast-food executive Valerie Daniels-Carter and retired Quarles & Brady Chairman John Daniels Jr., is among the most prominent families in Wisconsin, with influence in business, social and religious circles.

The church operates Holy Redeemer Christian Academy, a K-12 school serving about 370 students, almost all of whom attend on vouchers through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

Together the two schools received about $4.8 million in taxpayer funding in the 2016-'17 school year, according to state records.